FR2719564A1 - Case for packaging bottles or similar products - Google Patents

Abstract

The case is made from semi-rigid material such as corrugated cardboard. It is divided into two parts by a face (11), a horizontal base (12) and a second vertical face (13) that is arranged opposite the first and has the same dimensions.A horizontal top (14) is arranged opposite the base and is extended by a first additional vertical panel (15) which is half the height of the first vertical face. It is adhered to a horizontal panel (16) used to form the division. A further additional vertical panel (17) is adhered to the second vertical face.

Description

 The present invention relates to boxes of semi-rigid material, such as corrugated cardboard, intended for the packaging of elongated articles, generally cylindrical, such as bottles, in particular of Champagne, grouped for example by six, arranged head to tail, on two levels separated by a horizontal partition.

Such cases, while being very old in design, must now be designed to meet several requirements
- First, they must be very resistant to both crushing forces, by vertical compression, and shear, by lateral or diagonal compression.

 - Then, they must be "mechanizable", that is to say allow both a flat delivery, then their setting in volume and their filling on high-speed machines designed for this purpose.

 - In addition, their design must make it possible to avoid scratches on the collar and the label of the bottles placed head to tail side by side and superimposed on two levels.

 - In addition, also, said design must allow a case to offer complete faces for printing the brand of the product delivered in the case.

 - In addition, such a box must allow, after opening, to keep the bottles that have not been sampled, and therefore constitute shipping and storage packaging.

 - In addition, these boxes should preferably be able to receive an impression also on the horizontal partition wall.

 - Finally, they must be as simple as possible to make, to reduce the cost.

 We know from document Du (French patent NO 2,519,937), such a box, in which the peripheral surface is created from a blank cut, folded and glued, delivered flat, and which the machine sets in volume all by introducing a spider defining a housing for the bottles. The disadvantage of this system is that said box is therefore in three elements which must be glued one into the other at the time of implementation.

We also know from document D2, namely the "International Code for
Cardboard boxes "edited by the European Federation of Cardboard Manufacturers
Corrugated (7th edition, Paris, 1990) such a box, produced from a single cut blank, by a system of folded and glued panels so that the peripheral surface of the box is extended by a panel forming said interior horizontal partition . However, the connection point between the peripheral surface and the interior horizontal partition is located halfway up a vertical face and on a relatively narrow bonding surface. This results in a relative weakness of the body at this point, hence a lack of resistance to vertical compression. In addition, it becomes impossible to print on said vertical face the brand of the packaged product, which is not admissible for the customer.

 By a different construction of the box, the invention eliminates these drawbacks while at the same time allowing the use for the setting in volume and the filling of these boxes, of said existing machine.

 According to the construction of the box which is the subject of the present invention, the complete peripheral surface thereof comprises a first vertical face, a horizontal bottom, a second vertical face opposite the first and having the same dimensions, and a top. horizontal opposite to the horizontal bottom, this horizontal top being extended by a first vertical additional panel having half the height of the first vertical face, and glued to the interior surface of said first vertical face, then a second horizontal additional panel constituting the partition separating the two identical superimposed spaces of the body, and finally a third additional vertical panel, glued to the interior surface of the second vertical face of the body.

 As a result, the box has a complete peripheral surface, coming from a single blank of cut corrugated cardboard, while the horizontal partition wall, which also came from the same blank, is joined to the partition from which it leaves at by means of a bonded area with an area equal to half the area of the said partition.

 Such a box has both the advantage of being constructed from a single blank of cardboard, which avoids having to introduce the partition or a separate spider and to stick it inside the box, and that of being much more resistant to vertical, lateral and oblique compression stresses than the anterior boxes such as those described above.

 Likewise, such a box can include other arrangements similar to those of known boxes.

 Thus, the horizontal top has a tear strip allowing access to the bottles located immediately below. Each flap, constituting said peripheral surface, is hinged a flap having approximately half the length of the adjacent panels. All of these flaps, once folded, ensure the closing of the box, while the three additional panels do not have no flaps.

 All the panels forming the peripheral surface and the additional panels are all folded in the same direction with the exception of the third additional panel.

 However, in addition to these details, the box according to the invention has an original and important feature: in order to facilitate access to the lower layer of the bottles, the horizontal partition wall comprises, in the direction perpendicular to the grooves of the carton, a second pull tab; such a tongue can be a simple strip pre-glued under the partition, without any pre-cut of the box so as not to weaken the box, or a pre-cut panel, of any shape, for example in trapezium. To facilitate access to this tab, it may include a gripping notch, or the closing flap of the lower half of the body may have a height a few millimeters lower than this half, so as not to cover the end of the tongue.

We will now describe in more detail the invention, with reference to the accompanying drawing on which
Figure 1 is a flat view of a blank used for the construction of a box of the previous type.

 Figure 2 is a perspective view of this box of the previous type, the closure flaps located at the front being removed.

FIG. 3 is a flat view of a blank used for the construction of a box according to the invention and,
Figure 4 is a perspective view of the box according to Figure 3, three of the front closure flaps being removed.

In both cases, the box (C1 or C2) is intended to receive six bottles of
Champagne B, spread upside down on two levels separated by a horizontal partition wall S.

 In the version of document D1 (not shown), the spider formed by the partition S and the vertical partitions is independent of the periphery of the box, and glued to the inside at the time of setting in volume and filling of the box .

In the version described in document D2, and illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, the periphery of the box, as it appears in FIG. 1, includes
- a first vertical half-face 1,
- a horizontal background 2,
- a second vertical face 3,
- a horizontal top 4,
- a third vertical half-face 5, while the interior fittings include:
- a first horizontal additional panel 6,
- a second additional vertical panel 7.

As it appears in FIG. 2, the vertical half-faces 1 and 5 are joined by gluing along a horizontal strip 8, while the second additional panel 7 is glued at 9 to the interior surface of the second vertical face 3 .
The horizontal partition 6 is therefore joined to the two vertical faces (1, 5) and (3) by narrow strips (8) and (9). This is sufficient for a simple separation between two spaces for receiving bottles B.

 However, it is clear that, on the one hand, the peripheral surface of the box of FIGS. 1-2 is mechanically weakened by the constitution in two parts offset in thickness, on the other hand that the vertical partition 1, 5 cannot be the same reason, to receive any impression, in particular the mark of the producer.

 Finally, it is by no means indifferent to note that said periphery has five panels, one more panel and one upsetting than in the embodiment according to the invention as described below.

In the embodiment according to the invention, the periphery of the box, as it appears in FIG. 3, comprises
- a first vertical face 11,
- a horizontal bottom 12,
a second vertical face 13 and,
- a horizontal top 14,
which is the simplest way to build a volume (instead of the five panels in Figure 1).

The interior layout includes
- a first additional vertical panel 15, having a height equal to half of the first vertical face 11, and glued entirely on it, at 18.

- a second horizontal additional panel 16, and
- a third additional vertical panel 17, glued at 19 on the inside of the vertical wall 13.

 In the same way as in the previous case, the panel 16 plays the same role as the panel 6, that is to say that of the horizontal partition S separating the spaces intended to each receive three bottles B head to tail.

 On the other hand, it is clear when we consider Figures 2 and 4, that the mechanical behavior of boxes C1 and C2, in particular their resistance to crushing (vertical compression) and to shear (lateral or diagonal compression) is very different: the connection zone 8 between the half-faces 1 and 5 of the body C, in fact only represents the meeting point between the partition 6 and the vertical face 1/5, when in fact, due to the offset d 'thickness between 1 and 5, this portion rather constitutes a zone of weakness. On the contrary, the connection 18 between two surfaces, each equal to half of a vertical face 11, of the panels 11 and 15 guarantees both the junction of the partition 16 on the partition 11 and a satisfactory holding of the body C2 screws with regard to all the above constraints. In addition, the outer surface of the vertical face 11 is available for any identification or advertising printing.

 In addition, it should be noted that the blank of FIG. 3 lends itself without any difficulty to the preliminary folding and gluing first of the panels 15, 16, 17 on the panel 13, to form a flat assembly constituted by these panels. 13, 15, 16, 17 on the panels 11, 12 also kept flat, then in a second step in the folding and gluing of the panel 11 on the panel 15 with a view to the setting in volume and the filling of the body with bottles by conventional machines.

 In the same way as the panels 1-5 of the blank of FIG. 1 have flaps 1'-5 'which can be folded down to close the two opposite faces of the body 1, while the panels 6 and 7 do not have flaps, the panels 11-14 of the blank of Figure 3 have flaps 11'-14 ', while panels 15-17 do not have flaps and are slightly narrower, to facilitate their arrangement in the peripheral volume 11-14.

 The box C2 according to the invention therefore has only 8 flaps instead of 10 in the box C1 of the prior art. These flaps can be of various heights depending on the type of closure adopted (contiguous or non-contiguous). According to a particular characteristic of the invention, illustrated in FIG. 4, the lower flap 12 ′ a is less than half the height of the body, so that when it is folded in place, its upper edge 20 is located below the level of the horizontal partition 16, which facilitates access to the primer of a tear-off tab 21.

Such a tear-off tab is constituted by a plastic strip pre-glued in the axis of the partition 16, without any pre-cutting thereof, in the same way as a tear-off tab 22 is provided, in known manner, in the axis of the top wall 14, in the form of a plastic strip bonded to the underside of this wall 14.

 Such tear-off tabs facilitate access to the successive layers of bottles in the two horizontal compartments of the box, without any precut weakening the box. Alternatively, one can provide at the end of a tongue 21, a notch 23 further facilitating its gripping from inside the body.

 Of course, the invention has been described in connection with a box intended to contain six bottles grouped by 3 on two superimposed levels, but it is understood that this is a nonlimiting example, a similar structure can be adapted to any number, preferably even, of bottles, or more generally of elongated articles, preferably cylindrical, such as cans of food products or drinks.

Claims (8)

 1. Box of semi-rigid material, preferably corrugated cardboard, intended to receive a preferably even number of elongated articles, generally cylindrical, such as bottles distributed in two identical superimposed spaces separated by a partition, of the type in which from a single blank, said partition is created by bonding an inner panel extending the peripheral surface of the body on two opposite faces of said peripheral surface,  characterized in that said complete peripheral surface comprises a first vertical face (11), a horizontal bottom (12), a second vertical face (13) opposite to the first and having the same dimensions, and a horizontal top (14) opposite to the horizontal bottom, and this horizontal top is extended by a first additional vertical panel (15) having half the height of the first vertical face (11), and glued to the interior surface of said first vertical face (11), then a second horizontal additional panel (16) constituting said partition, and finally by a third vertical additional panel (17), glued to the interior surface of said second vertical face (13).  2. Box according to claim 1, characterized in that the horizontal top and the partition both have a tear strip (21, 22) allowing access to the bottles located immediately below.  3. Box according to claim 2, characterized in that the tear strip (21, 22) is created by a plastic strip stuck in the axis of the surface considered, perpendicular to the grooves of the corrugated board, without any precut of said surface.  4. Box according to claim 2, characterized in that the tear strip is created by a precut of the surface considered.  5. Box according to any one of claims 2 to 4, characterized in that, at at least one of its ends, the tear strip has a notch (23) facilitating its gripping.  6. Box according to any one of claims 2 to 5, characterized in that, the horizontal bottom (12) being extended by flaps (12'a, 12'b) closing the box, these flaps (12 ' a, 12'b) have a height less than half the height of the body, leaving accessible The end of the tear-off tab (21) provided in the horizontal partition wall.  7. Box according to one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that all of the panels forming the peripheral surface and the additional panels are all folded in the same direction with the exception of the third additional panel (17).  8. A method for producing and implementing a box according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that, in a first operation from the single blank, the additional panels are folded (15, 16 , 17) by gluing the third additional panel (17) on the second vertical panel (13) to form a first assembly presented flat, on which a second flat assembly also consisting of the first vertical panel (11) is folded flat and the horizontal bottom (12), and in a second operation, the first vertical panel (11) is folded and glued onto the first additional panel (15), the flat assembly resulting from these two is set up in volume operations, and finally the box thus formed is lined with one of its open ends by means of a machine of the conventional type.